Students' narratives from graphical artefacts : Exploring the use of mathematics tools and forms of expression in students' graphicacy

Sammanfattning: The research concerns presented in this dissertation addresses aspects of students’ interaction with commonly occurring graphical artefacts in teaching and learning environments. In particular, focus is on how the students make sense of these artefacts in relation to subject specific tools and forms of expression.The dissertation comprises of four studies guided by a semiotics cultural- historical perspective to cognition. The first study which is largely quantitative, analyses the percentage scores from students’ responses to selected items from OECD PISA surveys for items containing graphical elements. The second and the third studies in keeping with a more sociocultural perspective to learning as point of departure, examine the students’ collaborative interaction around tasks containing graphical elements. The fourth study explores the nature of students’ solutions from the Swedish national test in mathematics based on a tools and forms of expression sensitive empirically derived construct of Identification contra Critical-analytical approach to graphicacy.The main outcomes of these studies can be summarised as follows: first there is justification for re-examining the predominant characterisation of students’ interaction with graphical artefacts. Secondly, while it is not uncommon for students to take a more visual-perceptive and intuitive approach to graphicacy, results from task items interactions indicate that a Critical-analytical approach seems to be more reliable and capable of yielding desirable outcomes. The outcomes of these studies call for vigilance on the type of tasks used in relation to graphicacy and how these can be used to foster students’ Critical-analytical disposition.